Greg [00:00:00]:
And I think sick care is the problem is there. Let's mask the problem. Let's make the problem not feel as problematic, but we're not really taking care of the problem. Whereas with healthcare, we are trying to keep people healthy and make the symptoms go away. Through making the problem go away.
Greg [00:00:24]:
You.
Greg [00:00:27]:
This is secrets for success. Welcome to the Secrets for Success podcast. I'm your host, Greg Tod. Today I have a blast from my past. Is that what we want to call this? You guys? You're going to hear from Denise Carlstrom. She is a chiropractor. She has a practice in Palm beach.
Greg [00:00:49]:
Right?
Greg [00:00:49]:
West Palm Beach.
Denise [00:00:50]:
Jupiter, Florida.
Greg [00:00:51]:
Oh, Jupiter, Florida.
Greg [00:00:52]:
Okay.
Greg [00:00:52]:
She has a practice in Jupiter, Florida. And we're going to talk everything, and we know each other from our past. So anyway, Denise, welcome to the podcast. Great to have you here.
Denise [00:01:03]:
Thank you very much.
Greg [00:01:04]:
All right, so why don't you tell the people first how we are connected from our past.
Denise [00:01:09]:
Okay. So back in, I always say it was like 2019. I got on your email list, I guess through having a PT working with me in my office. She was actually unlicensed at the time that I met her. She was taking her board for the second time because she failed the first, and she was a little know, worried about passing it. So she worked for me as like an assistant. It's the first time I ever hired somebody on the spot. Like, she walked in my door, something about her.
Denise [00:01:36]:
I was like. She goes, do you need somebody? I do. I was going through a huge change in staffing at the time. I've never done that before, so I did it. And something about her was amazing. And then she got licensed a few months later, and I'm like, you can't leave. Let's create a PT department around you. Then the pandemic hit and all that stuff happened.
Denise [00:01:55]:
But from that, somehow I got on your list because of her being PT. I don't even know how it happened. So I started watching you through the pandemic, and you kept making references to South Florida, I think. And I'm like, we have similarities in that way. I can't remember specifically what it was and why I clued into that. But then when we finally talked, there's no way. I did not ever expect you to say you went to Cooper City High School.
Greg [00:02:23]:
We are Cooper City high school cowboys. Yes, we went to the same high school, y'all. It's the craziest thing ever. Yeah. So what were you like here? Before we even get into your story of your chiropractor private practice journey. What were you like in high school? And did you always know you were going to be a. Hmm, good question. Because we didn't go to Cooper City at the same time.
Greg [00:02:47]:
No.
Denise [00:02:48]:
Yeah, you're younger than whatever.
Greg [00:02:51]:
Maybe.
Denise [00:02:51]:
All right, whatever. So we're not that. You know, it's funny, back in the day, I don't know if you ever had these when you were little, those little books that you write about your year in school, right?
Greg [00:03:03]:
Yeah.
Denise [00:03:03]:
And it says, what do you want to be when you grow up? We always had one of those when I was a kid. I still have it. I would say a doctor or a lawyer every year from, like, literally elementary school. Really weird. Then as I progressed up in years, I was always a holistic thinker, and I always felt like I was more natural and cared about health and stuff, but I didn't know where I was going. But I knew I wanted to go into something higher level, but I thought it was going to be like broadcast journalism as an attorney.
Greg [00:03:33]:
Okay.
Denise [00:03:34]:
And when I went into college, I realized that's not my thing. And then I moved into nutrition and dietetics, and then I realized, wow, I'm decent at science, so I'm getting a doctorate. Like, I thought I was going to go to medical school or some kind of doctorate program, but I didn't know what it was then, right? So the journey kind of started going, but because of my holistic nature, that's what steered me, because I didn't want to do traditional sick care, right? So I knew that early on. So I started delving into a lot of different occupations to figure out where I belonged, to the point where I took a year off from in between. And I worked for an MD. He was an ophthalmologist, very well known one in Fort Lauderdale, and saw things that were going on. And at that time, hmos were really big. And he was like, oh, you can't go into medicine.
Denise [00:04:26]:
It's going to be primary care. He used to say this exact thing. You're not going to make as much as a FPL line worker. I don't know where he got that from.
Greg [00:04:35]:
Wow.
Denise [00:04:36]:
I don't know where. It was early 90s, if you would.
Greg [00:04:39]:
Have told me that reference. I'm like, oh, yeah, she's definitely from South Florida. FP and L. We all had FP and L as our electric company, so.
Denise [00:04:48]:
He was not encouraging me to go. He was an ophthalmologist, which was a specialized thing, but I got to go into surgery and do all these things. But you know what I found with mds? They were very stressed out. Nobody was really that happy. And I thought, well, maybe I could do er where you're not on call. And those guys weren't happy. And the hospital setting didn't seem very fun to me. And I'm like, it just didn't vibe with me.
Denise [00:05:12]:
And then I'm a spiritual person, and I seek God for answers. Even in my 20s, when I was sort of lost in that way, but I still had that guiding force. I was, like, looking. And then I went back into a chiropractic office because I had been a chiropractic patient as a result of an accident when I was a teenager. And nobody explained chiropractic to me because of my car accident. They helped me, and I felt good. And I'm like, oh, I like how I feel. Not one person, no chiropractors ever explained it to me and why I was feeling better, right? Which we do at our office now.
Denise [00:05:49]:
My husband and I work together. But anyway, when I took that little hiatus from everything, I hadn't been in the chiropractic office in a while. Then I went back in and everybody was happy. And I'm like, okay, this is more my vibe, right? And I made the decision, okay, I'm going to chiropractic school. I felt very epiphany, like I'm going on the right path.
Greg [00:06:10]:
This is interesting that you say that. Every single time we talk, we always say, oh, my gosh, it's the same thing with me. It's the same thing as me. Went to the same high school, this, that. Well, now I'm hearing how you got into chiropractic, and guess what? It's kind of the same story as well. My mom was a medical transcriptionist for orthopedic surgeon. I thought that I was going to be a doctor or a lawyer. My parents actually thought that if I could get my crap together, I would be a lawyer, because I love to argue.
Greg [00:06:42]:
But then I was like, oh, I think I want to be a doctor. And my mom is working for this doctor. His name is Paul Hindenburg, and he was an orthopedic surgeon in know, Florida. And so my mom set up a time for me to talk with him on what my path needs to be to become an orthopedic surgeon. And I finally got the opportunity to go into the office and talk with him, and he said, I would never do this job. He's like, I'm on my third wife. One of my daughters is getting married. I don't even know her.
Greg [00:07:18]:
Basically, I've spent my entire life just doing surgeries, doing this, and he was just miserable that day. And I saw physician after physician that were so dissatisfied with their job, but this is what he did that no other physician did for me. He said, go do those people are doing over there and over there. He had a physical therapy department. He says they always seem to be smiling. So I'm hearing your story, and it's very similar. I thought I was going to go into traditional medicine through being a physician. As I started to talk to those people, I realized that they're miserable.
Greg [00:08:01]:
And then I saw what he is the one that directed me to looking at what a physical therapist does, and they seemed to be a bit happier. So I decided on PT because of that. And you seems like you decided on chiropractic because they seemed happier.
Denise [00:08:18]:
You know what's interesting, though, is that at the time, because my degree was in nutrition dietetics, I went to University of Florida. It was very food science based and very medically based. I was like, I could do something maybe in nutrition as an MD, but it didn't exist at that time. I would have been like a real warrior going into this. Now. You have like Dr. Oz and all these people who kind of forged into that, that look like gurus. These are things we say in chiropractic all the time.
Denise [00:08:47]:
A lot of the things that they say that are very wellness oriented. But I was like, because it was very sick care, and to me, it didn't make sense. I don't want to treat somebody after the fact. I want to help them avoid the fact.
Greg [00:09:00]:
Let's talk about this sick care versus health care a little bit more, because I think everyone gets into whatever profession they're in and they think it's healthcare. But you're saying sick care, I believe. I know where you're going with this, but what would you categorize as sick care versus what you would categorize as health care?
Denise [00:09:23]:
Or I guess you could say wellness or whatever, but sick care, to me, what we were taught through my dietics is like, you treat the person after they already have the disease and you're just helping them manage the disease.
Greg [00:09:32]:
Right?
Denise [00:09:32]:
And to me, even then, even from my teenage years, I'm like, it doesn't make sense to me to catch it late or deal with it later, like, prevent it from happening is what I always wanted to do. So that did not sit well with me. And I was not one to write a prescription all day long. One of the things I also considered was doing, like, plastic surgery or something in that realm, because I thought that would be super cool. But the guys that I met through this MD that I worked for, some of them had MD and dental degrees, and they were artists. I'm like, how did you do all that to get to be a plastic surgeon? Like, wow, that's a lot of school. But so ultimately, though, it was just my wellness thinking, my holistic side. I didn't even like to take anything when I had a headache.
Denise [00:10:22]:
I was like, oh, that's my body's reaction to something. I'm just going to let it work itself out. Clearly, there's something happening. I don't want to cover up symptoms.
Greg [00:10:29]:
Is what I'm getting. Yeah. I think we need to really classify what are we truly doing here? Are we really helping people get healthier or are we basically masking the problem? And that's what we do. And I think sick care is the problem is there. Let's mask the problem. Let's make the problem not feel as problematic, but we're not really taking care of the problem. Whereas with healthcare, we are trying to keep people healthy and make the symptoms go away through making the problem go away. And I think it's two totally different things, but everything we call health care, and it's not.
Greg [00:11:18]:
So anyways, okay, that's pretty amazing. So you are a chiropractor. Can I ask you how long you have had your practice, and did you have your practice coming right out of school? How did all that happen?
Denise [00:11:33]:
Yeah, well, the other thing I wanted to say is, in chiropractic, we have very confused clientele a lot of times because they think we just do aches and pains.
Greg [00:11:44]:
Right.
Denise [00:11:45]:
And when I went to school, that goes back to nobody sat me down and explained anything. And I knew these chiropractors pretty well. They had plenty of time to tell me about what chiropractic was. It's not just aches and pains. It's like getting rid of nervous system interference to allow your body to function at a high level.
Greg [00:12:00]:
Right.
Denise [00:12:01]:
Which creates a lot of better health outcomes because you're getting rid of that interference.
Greg [00:12:07]:
Why do you think they didn't. Don't explain it.
Denise [00:12:11]:
I don't know. I don't know. But it made a big impact on me. So a couple of things that happened at that time, being in that medical practice, one thing that stuck with me a lot is his office was very nice compared to some of the others around that area. People would have cabinets falling down and I'm like, how does anybody practice in a setting? He had a nice office. He had a logo shirt. He was very professional setting. And people would come in and always comment on how he looked as far as the unit, as a team.
Denise [00:12:39]:
And then, where was I going with that?
Greg [00:12:43]:
You were talking about the.
Denise [00:12:45]:
Oh, yeah, just the difference and why practice. And then that other thing is like, why did these chiropractors not just. It's a quick explanation, right? Your nervous system can get interference, and if it's not freed up to let your body function like it wants to at 100%, your brain's communicating with your body, then you're not going to have optimal health, period. Nobody said that to me. And then when I got to school, I was like, oh, my gosh. Nobody told. I just knew. I liked how I felt when I got adjusted, but I didn't know I was enhancing my overall health this whole time.
Greg [00:13:16]:
Right.
Denise [00:13:17]:
Then we add in other things, like, you got to eat healthy, you got to have good mindset. Like, all those things come into play for better health, which is what we implement. So I met my husband in chiropractic school. I always knew I couldn't work for somebody that dates back to years ago, so I always wanted to have my own thing. We had to intern to get our license back in that day, and we knew we were going to open our own thing, but we did it on a wing and a prayer. Like not having anything right out of school.
Greg [00:13:43]:
Yeah. Okay.
Greg [00:13:44]:
After our. So you started your practice right out. Is that a normal thing for chiropractors? Because as physical therapists, it's not commonplace for you to start a practice right out of school. It's happening more and more. And we always, at least the way that we were taught from our professors, which they don't really know anything, but from our professors is work for someone and work for someone for anywhere between two to five years, and then you can consider opening up your own practice. Does a typical chiropractor come out of school and within a couple of months you're having your own thing, or is that not normal?
Denise [00:14:23]:
I think it varies. It depends on the person and what they feel like they can do for themselves. Back in my day, we had to do an internship in order to get licensed. So you had to kind of work in somebody's office in short term.
Greg [00:14:33]:
Right.
Denise [00:14:34]:
I tried to learn as much as I could. When it comes to business side stuff, you got to do it. You got to learn it yourself. You don't learn a lot of that in school, I tried to suck up as much as I could, and even when I interned with this guy who, he had a big practice in Orlando, he had more than one. I'd go to all of them and suck up what I could from all of mean. We just. It's crazy. We just went and did it right.
Denise [00:14:57]:
I would say it's just mixed. Some people go because I have associates that work for me, and I try know incentivize them and make know feel good to be there because it's a lot to run a practice. It's a big undertaking.
Greg [00:15:12]:
How long has your practice been around now?
Denise [00:15:14]:
24 years.
Greg [00:15:15]:
24 years. Okay, so let's transition into that. So you've had a practice for 24 years. What's your staffing situation now?
Greg [00:15:27]:
Like?
Greg [00:15:27]:
How many people do you have that are working for you? Tell us a little bit, if you don't mind. Tell us some of your rev, with the money wise, how is your practice? Is it a one stop shop? So give me a little bit of feedback.
Greg [00:15:39]:
Yeah.
Denise [00:15:40]:
I would say we've always been high drivers, and we always wanted to see a lot of people and impact people. The cool thing about, I would say the difference between chiropractic and PT is that. And this is one thing I noticed with my PT, I'm like, wow, she's got to work one on one, and she has to do so much documentation, and it's a lot. But then with chiropractic, you could see, like, 50 people in the time she sees one.
Greg [00:16:01]:
Right? Wow.
Denise [00:16:02]:
It's interesting. So we could see a lot of people, which we always desire to have a higher volume type of practice.
Greg [00:16:09]:
Right.
Denise [00:16:10]:
The other thing is, my husband and I, we're easily bored. He feels like you should change professions, like, every ten years. But we evolved in our office somewhat, where we added in new things, like, he used to do manipulation under anesthesia for a time. We have a postural corrective technique that we use. There's a lot of different approaches in chiropractic, but this is more objective. We're both very objective, so we can actually see a change on x ray, like a military neck to a curved neck. We had a lot of testimonials with that happening.
Greg [00:16:41]:
Right.
Denise [00:16:43]:
And to change something like that is cool because you definitely want to get somebody out of pain. But if you can do corrective work and really affect their posture and change them, that's huge. And then I was always doing a component of nutritional advice and helping people, but then I was like, I realized a lot of people know what to do, they just don't do it. So I need something a little more structured. So I started implementing more of a weight loss structured program.
Greg [00:17:06]:
Okay.
Denise [00:17:07]:
And then from that, I started to find out other therapies. I discovered red light and near infrared light and the impact it had on the body. I saw things like Bell's palsy being cured quickly, wounds and burns and aches and pains healing on people, along with body contouring and getting results with weight loss and antiaging. So I was like, oh, this is super cool. People would come in and do it, and I was like, they feel energized and amazing. It's like a biohack kind of a thing. So we have, like, our chiropractic. We do massage.
Denise [00:17:38]:
Everything we do is hands on, right. And corrective based, and trying to get to the root of the problem, really.
Greg [00:17:49]:
When we started the podcast, you talked about a lot of chiropractors, didn't explain what it is that they were doing. So it's like, hey, I'm helping the person. But they wouldn't explain. There were a few that did for you, and you're like, okay, I want to make sure that I do that when I have my practice. So I guess my question to you is this. You have all these different things that you've done in your practice. Nutritional counseling, red light therapy, massage therapy, this, that, and it seems like your patients do whatever it is that you ask them to do. Do you believe that a huge reason for that is because you have integrated education inside everything that you're doing with your clients?
Denise [00:18:35]:
Yeah. So we have messaging around our office with video messaging with text to tell people all the things we have in our office. It's hard because, actually, my staff gives a tour and they are explaining all the things that we have because we have a massage therapist in the back, but people wouldn't even know they're there unless you tell them.
Greg [00:18:52]:
Right.
Denise [00:18:54]:
And part of our chiropractic practice process for a new patient is to go through a two day process of evaluating their condition, explaining everything to them, and then showing them their findings with an explanation.
Greg [00:19:07]:
Got you.
Denise [00:19:07]:
So, if anything, they get that over a two day period. And if they don't do anything, at least they understood. Here was my problem. Here was what a normal spine looks like. This is what's going on, and this is what I could get if I went through this treatment program. Like, this is what the goal would be and how it would impact my health. So that was really important to my husband and I to just give them an explanation. It doesn't have to be hours long and this whole big long thing, but it's part of our process when we're educating a new patient.
Greg [00:19:38]:
So this podcast is called the Secrets for success. And you all have had a successful chiropractic practice for the last 23 years.
Denise [00:19:49]:
2324-2424 we started in 1990.
Greg [00:19:51]:
919 99. Wow. So what are some of the keys to success? Because one of the big things I'm hearing from you is that you don't just do practical work and do something on something. You're always explaining this is why we're doing what we're doing. And I think that is a huge missing ingredient for a lot of people in practice, whether it's chiropractic, pt, occupational therapy, they're doing things and people might feel better or they're not, or whatever the case may be, but they're not explaining what it is that they're doing and why we're doing this. And I think what that's doing is it's not anchoring authority to them, that every single thing that we do here is purposeful. So now if I'm going to recommend to you to go see my massage therapist over there, or you're going to want to try this red light therapy or you're going to want to do this or you're going to want to do that. Well, because you've done that already with them.
Greg [00:20:54]:
They already trust you. There's massive trust in Denise. There's massive trust with your husband as a maiden provider at the clinic. And people are doing the stuff. And I feel like a lot of clients that I've had where they're like, I can't get people to do anything beyond what we're. And I ask them, how much education are you doing, how much communication and conversation is had? And it's like minimal to none. I'm like, yeah, nobody trusts you because they just look at you as a healthcare professional widget maker. You're just doing the thing on them, but they don't think you know anything because you haven't communicated to them anything on why you're doing what you're doing.
Denise [00:21:38]:
I think with chiropractic we're misunderstood a lot. Like people have a file. If you said chiropractor, a lot of times we don't even say it to somebody right off the bat if we're doing some kind of marketing thing because literally, don't you have a file of what comes to your mind have to go forever. You're cracking my back, like, oh, I'm scared you can hurt me. I always tell people, you're not going to offend me. Tell me anything that you think about chiropractic and I'll refute it and tell you that we're getting amazing results because I've lived it. But you could say, how many people.
Greg [00:22:08]:
Would do that, though? How many providers honestly think of just right now, think of ten chiropractors that you know, okay, how many chiropractic practice owners would say, tell me everything you know, because it might offend you. Like, they might say you're a backcracker or you're da da da da, whatever the case may be. How many people would actually do that? Because to me, it seems like what you're doing, it might be smarter than what you realize you're doing. What you're doing is you're finding out what all their objections are, and you're basically then saying, okay, let me figure out what their perception is, and then let me basically educate them, and you're overcoming all their objections so that they basically become, I always client staff.
Denise [00:22:53]:
I want to answer their question before it's asked. Okay, so we're answering it before it even comes up.
Greg [00:22:59]:
All right.
Greg [00:22:59]:
Now you're one of my inner circle members, and I teach you guys, like, hey, if you're going to go online, these are some of the things that you have to do, right? And one of the things is if you're going to do one to many events, right. So eventually, in the beginning, you got to have proof of a product and get it going. But eventually, I'll have you do webinars and challenges. That's how most of you all have found me, right? It's through 21 20 challenge or through one of my webinars, one of my five day challenges, or my live events. If you notice something, I'll give you a little hack. Every single time I do any type of event, the first thing I do is I hit all the elephants in a room right away. I do exactly what it is that you do. I just do it in an event set up.
Greg [00:23:45]:
So if I'm doing a webinar, I guess we're doing this. So it's a podcast. I forgot. Okay, so one of the big things that I do is I will do, like, true or false, where I'm like, okay, I know what you all are thinking. You're thinking this. You're thinking this and you're thinking this. Let's just get it out the room first. I'm going to answer this, and then let's get on to the meat and potatoes of it.
Greg [00:24:07]:
And that's what you're doing. You're doing that in the clinic saying, okay, tell me what it is that you think of a chiropractor. And to me, it's actually bringing down all the walls of people right away. That's really good.
Denise [00:24:20]:
It's funny, I was talking to my husband about this because he's at a point where he's got really good conversions. He's a good communicator. He's a God of personality, and he's like, you know what? I just don't care about the outcome anymore with the person, like, their decision making. In other words. He's like, I'm just telling them everything that they need and what's going on and what I want to do with them, and I'm letting them decide.
Greg [00:24:43]:
Right.
Denise [00:24:43]:
So he's getting as much information as he needs. He's laying out their treatment plan. He's like, I've taken away my feelings on what their decision is or what their outcome is. He's like, take it or leave it.
Greg [00:24:55]:
Can you do that? Yeah, it's really hard.
Denise [00:24:58]:
Do it every day and red light. I would say if you get one in three people to do it because it's a huge jump and everybody, you know how you were talking about, you got to solve the problem in the quickest amount of time for the least expensive way with the least amount of effort for a person.
Greg [00:25:11]:
Right.
Denise [00:25:11]:
I tell everybody every day, if I could fix you in one visit and have you be this metamorphosis and transformation, oh, my gosh, I would do it. I would charge a lot for it. I'd do it one time, and you'd be on your way because that's what everybody wants.
Greg [00:25:23]:
Right.
Denise [00:25:24]:
But you got to put skin in the game, and there's no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Greg [00:25:28]:
Right.
Denise [00:25:29]:
You got to put a little effort in people.
Greg [00:25:30]:
Yeah.
Denise [00:25:31]:
And so not everybody's up for that.
Greg [00:25:34]:
Right.
Denise [00:25:34]:
They see these magic things. None of them are magic.
Greg [00:25:39]:
I think that right there, I guess since we are calling this the secrets for Success podcast, I think one of the big things you said there is one of the main keys to success, at least that I've heard so far from you, is not only explaining what it is that you're doing, and don't just assume that everybody knows. And every single time you're explaining, you're basically on audition for people to look at you as a decision maker on their behalf. And we're all looking for decision makers, and then number two is taking the emotion out of it. I think our egos are so tied into so much of the things that we do that when people say no to us, we believe they're saying no to Greg Todd or to Denise Carlstrom, where they might just be saying no to my offer and it has nothing to do with me. And most people haven't been able to detach themselves from that. And because of that, a lot of times if you feel like somebody might say no, you're just not going to even present them with an offer.
Denise [00:26:46]:
It's not easy. It's like sales in chiropractic. This is what's funny. When I'm looking at all the pts that I've been meeting, this whole realm, you guys are embarking, I feel like, on something we've always done as chiropractors, we never had anybody feeding people to us. We had to start from ground zero, hustling and doing stuff and selling what we do and educating people and disarming them on what they think.
Greg [00:27:10]:
You know that when I started in the online space and coaching, I said that. I don't know if you'll appreciate this or not, but I said the goal, I believe the goal is for us to adopt the mindset of the chiropractor.
Denise [00:27:27]:
Oh, wow.
Greg [00:27:28]:
People hated me for saying that.
Denise [00:27:31]:
We're known as very good entrepreneurs.
Greg [00:27:33]:
Yeah, that's the thing.
Denise [00:27:34]:
Telling you everybody as a PT.
Greg [00:27:36]:
So as a physical therapist, we come out of school knowing that 99% of us are going to work for somebody. It's changed over the last two or three years, but we work for people. That's what we do as physical therapists. And I said, one of the things that I love about the chiropractic profession is that they know coming out, you got to hustle to make it. And all this sales, that's what you have to do if you're in business for yourself. You got to sell. You got to sell people on your opportunity, on whatever your offer is, this, that, and I feel like you didn't have a choice. You had to do this from the get go.
Denise [00:28:16]:
I mean, it's not something you realize. You think you're going to hang your shingle out and people are going to come running to your door. It doesn't work like that.
Greg [00:28:21]:
Right.
Denise [00:28:22]:
But I will say, even my friend who's a dentist, he has to sell his treatment plans, right? I'm like, there's sales to every aspect of business, but we've learned to detect, because it is hard to. Like, you go through something, you really invest in the person, and they don't do it. It's like you're really bummed out that they didn't. But I say, it's like the buildings burn. I knocked on your door, I said, hey, the building's burning. Get out. And if they listen or they don't, I got to just detach myself from the outcome.
Greg [00:28:51]:
That's a great way of looking at it.
Denise [00:28:52]:
So I tell, because I have a coach who just resigned recently, and she used to get very bummed out when people weren't doing what they're supposed to or not accepting the treatment plan. And I'm like, you're giving them the information. You're trying to help them as best you can, but they ultimately have to want to do it.
Greg [00:29:08]:
Right.
Greg [00:29:08]:
Okay, so your practice is doing quite well. You've had your ups and downs, right? Like any other practice owner. Can you give me one or two secrets? You would say that has created success in your practice because you're 24 years in. That's really hard to do to keep it going for that amount of time. So one or two things, and we.
Denise [00:29:32]:
Just went over the seven figure mark. Like, I would say in the last couple of years, we were always on the cusp, pushing it. And then we finally did it. It's kind of crazy after the pandemic, actually, too, right post that. And even during the pandemic, we were fine. We didn't ever stop. My husband and I, we just kept going and we adapted to the scenario. But I would say with staffing, because I think that's a huge undertaking for most.
Denise [00:29:57]:
Most practitioners want to do their stuff and managing people, there's no manual for that. It's like parenting. I say, right? Nobody tells you how to do it. I often mention that to my adult employees, like, hey, it's like I'm parenting, right? But I think I try to see the light in a person that people that work for me. So I do these employee recognition surveys, okay, to get, like, what do I love? What am I driven by? What do I want to kind of figure out? How can I motivate that person? I have bonus structures set up for my staff for things that they do. It's tied to outcomes that they can control, right? And then I try to give them incentives, and I'm always trying to throw things out. Like, I'll buy you guys lunch today, or, they know they have bonuses based on productivity or whatever, right? And I try to just. I don't think it naturally comes to me to compliment people, but they say, I try to say to them, anytime I have to correct something, I try to go, hey, I really appreciate all your help to say something positive, as I'm saying, but I really need x, y, and z.
Greg [00:31:01]:
Right.
Greg [00:31:02]:
So compliment thing that you need or behavior we need to constructive criticism, I guess I'm adjust and then what I do is I just finish it off with a compliment.
Greg [00:31:13]:
Okay.
Greg [00:31:14]:
And I know you can do it. So that's what I do at the end. So it's like, you know what? And I believe you can do it. So I'll say, hey, you know what? We appreciate everything you're doing, but this is something I need, and I'm only telling you that because I know you can do it. And then I kind of leave it off like that. So that's awesome. All right, so those are some of your successful pieces. Can I ask you one more question before I finish? You and your husband have been in practice for 24 years.
Greg [00:31:38]:
You and your husband work together. So my situation with my household is that my wife's like the anti entrepreneur. She's not into all this stuff. How have you all been able to make it work?
Denise [00:31:50]:
Yeah, that's a good question. People always say that because like I said to you, when you meet my husband, you'll figure it out in our office daily. People go, how do you deal with him? He's so crazy. He's always, like, everywhere, like, he says things, I go, I don't even hear what he's saying. And people think we're sitting in there holding hands up every day. Like, people could tell him stuff, and I don't even know what they said. And he'll forget to tell me something important that they said. Like, we're sitting side by side talking.
Denise [00:32:17]:
We're busy doing our things, and we get home, and we learned a long time ago not to sit here and harp on business in our personal setting. We're a long time into this. I learned that a long time ago. Actually, in the beginning stages of us working together, I noticed you got to figure out what each of you is good at and then utilize those positive skills. And he's a very good people person. He's an amazing practitioner. He's a very good doctor. We both are.
Denise [00:32:45]:
But I feel like somebody will come in with low back pain and I'll go, oh, my gosh, you have kidney stones and you need to go to the doctor right now and get that figured out. He just has a gift for diagnosing and knowing what's up with somebody. I'm more of like a business manager, implementer, and helping our business side, but along with the practitioner side. So I think zeroing in on what your strengths are and utilizing those and separating out where it's not like you're early on in our practice, we used to talk about a lot of this stuff, but now only when we leave.
Greg [00:33:18]:
It at the office.
Denise [00:33:18]:
Yeah, now only when we need to. We don't sit there and harp on it, but when we have issues, we got to deal with them. And we have systems now where there's a lot of stuff in place. Now it's not as much figuring out, but we're always evolving because I get really bored. Yeah, I got to keep evolving or I'm just going to be bored.
Greg [00:33:38]:
Well, before we finish out the podcast, I do want to acknowledge you for something. And I think as I'm listening to any of the people that I interview, I'm trying to find out what are the clues that they're leaving behind for success, for not only myself, but for the listeners. And I think I would like to acknowledge in you longevity. Longevity in your practice, longevity in your marriage, your relationship. I think what I'm realizing is that you've been able to do that through all the things that you have said. But one of the big things is that your husband said something that every ten years you should change what it is that you do. And I'm like, but you guys are still chiropractors. But what you've done is you've changed the way that you deliver care, and you've done it.
Greg [00:34:31]:
And probably not every ten years. You're probably doing it like every couple of years, like year after year after year. And there's not a lot of people that have been able to have the success that you all have had for the duration of time. And I want to acknowledge you for it and your husband as well. Fantastic. Anyways, you're going to be coming out with some ways to be able to help and serve people in a different way. Right. And you're still working on all those things right now.
Greg [00:35:02]:
But just real quick, before we finish, give the people a little bit of an idea of who are the people that you're going to be helping online so that they don't just have to come to Jupiter, Florida.
Denise [00:35:12]:
Okay. Yeah. What I noticed was a lot of people, mostly women, coming into my office. It was like a repetitive person or set of symptoms where they're just unhappy with the way they're aging nobody feels good about themselves. I thought that was so sad. And it's people not in midlife approaching up to where you go through hormonal changes and everything. People are so hard on themselves, and they're not happy with the aging process. So part of the red light therapy is for antiaging, feeling better, body contouring.
Denise [00:35:44]:
And so I realized, you know what? I want to create something because people say, oh, I have a so and so in New Jersey, and they want to do something. How could I do that? So I come up with a way to bring it kind of to people in their homes, kind of a portable version of what I do and just it know, following an eating strategy and utilizing some of the tools that I have in my office, but in a portable way to get lighter in their body and just enlightened in their mind. People are really hard on themselves with self talk, just all of these things to kind of manage through and sort of hack the aging process a little bit.
Greg [00:36:24]:
Right?
Denise [00:36:24]:
Because why not feel your best? You should totally feel your best as you're going. It's an inevitable thing, but everybody's fighting it, which I get that. But fight it in a way that you feel good about and make it not as hard of a journey on yourself. So that's what I'm going toward, and it's called enlighten your body.
Greg [00:36:43]:
Lighten your body. Awesome. Well, it seems like you've done a really good job with that for yourself, and you're doing amazing. My wife even said that, so I'm not even trying to be fresher. I say, wow, she looks amazing. So that's just really awesome. And it just seems like you're continuing to reinvent yourself. So cheers to new beginnings.
Greg [00:37:06]:
Cheers to going online, and cheers to helping more people and impacting them on your terms. So, anyways, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I appreciate you.
Denise [00:37:15]:
Thank you.
Greg [00:37:16]:
If you guys want to find out more about Denise and what she has to offer in the description, we'll have all the ways that you can connect with her till next time.
